“Honestly, cancer was the last thing on my mind. It was really hard for me to accept my ovarian cancer diagnosis. I thought I was going to die – I wouldn’t be able to get married, have kids, or take care of my parents.”

“My parents are old. How can parents send their kids “off”, you know? That thought devastated me. I locked myself in my room and couldn’t stop crying or thinking about it. I told my boyfriend about it. He said it wasn’t right to think that way and made me promise that I would fight. How could I give up when those around me still have hope? The battle was just starting.

So I googled for inspirational stories about cancer survivors and how they managed to overcome all their obstacles to won the big C war. I absorbed all this positivity. I wanted to fight for survival, not only for myself but for my mom, my dad, and my loved ones. I believe that things happen for a reason. God only gives us what we can handle. He’ll help me get through it!

Coping with the side-effects requires lots of courage too. Especially with hair loss on the head, the eyebrows, even my lashes weren’t spared. It was challenging to look “less beautiful”, especially when my chemo regime caused me to gain weight – so much that I couldn’t recognise myself. Other side-effects include a tingling and numbness in my fingers and feet, a metallic taste in my mouth, tinnitus, joint pain, lethargy, nausea and…I don’t remember much now…it’s been a while…

When I was younger, I used to be afraid of needles but I overcame it by donating blood in Singapore. That experience made me braver and enabled me to overcome chemo. Yes, it was a total nightmare to stay in the hospital for 10 days with IV tubes in my hand connecting me to multiple drugs. What really kept me going was support from my family and friends! I was lucky and glad to have my mom with me throughout treatment. She helped me move around, fed and cleaned me…I don’t know where I would be without her. She cooked and brought me hot food every morning! I felt like I was in heaven!

In between chemo cycles, I was often very weak during the first 2 days and couldn’t do much at home. It was discouraging to just lie in bed so I took up cooking and baking. I cooked and baked a lot. I still remember one of my ‘huat kueh’ making incidents. My first attempt wasn’t successful, it didn’t ‘huat’ (blossom) so I kept making it for 3 days in a row until my mom said, “she’s not going to eat ‘huat kueh’ again for at least another year.” Hahaha! With these activities filling my time, chemo was much more bearable.” 

29 year old Jennifer is an ovarian cancer survivor whose last cancer treatment ended in June 2015. She shares about her journey in this series in conjunction with the Women’s Gynaecological Cancer Awareness Campaign. Next month, she will be celebrating her first year of being cancer-free and wants to raise cancer awareness. People do not need to fear cancer but to conquer it!